


Appropriately Vague

by BerryBagel



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Dramatic Irony, Humor, M/M, POV Outsider, Peter Parker trying his best, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Time Travel, Time stone as plot device, Weddings, implied Tony/Pepper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 04:51:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17574242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BerryBagel/pseuds/BerryBagel
Summary: It's been five years since the events of Infinity War.  The snap has been undone and life is good.The Captain America of five years ago is suddenly transported to this future.Nobody wants to mess up the timeline.  That means definitely not telling Cap anything about the big wedding next week.





	Appropriately Vague

Peter and Shuri are working on the new cloaking software when Captain America staggers into the lab.  Well, mostly Shuri is working on it, but Peter is keeping her company and she said he could help test it when she’s done.  He has his new web shooter to fix, anyways.

 

“Thank God, you’re both alive,” Cap says, staring at them both with wild-eyed excitement.  Peter doesn’t fully understand, but he appreciates the sentiment. It’s another great day to be alive, he supposes.  Or potentially Cap just heard the results of experimental trial 37B, and decided to come investigate the sounds of plastic splintering under high-pressure spray.

 

“Did you hear the crashing noise earlier?” Shuri asks.  “There’s no need to worry about that. We just knocked over some crates.” The crates had been knocked over when the web shooter had unintentionally unloaded seven gallons of web fluid at eighty miles per hour.  There’s no need to concern Captain America with the details, though.

 

Shuri gestures vaguely in the direction of the crates.  Cap doesn’t even turn to acknowledge the glue-covered pile of wreckage.

 

“It worked…” He mumbles.

 

“Well, not exactly.  But now Peter knows what the problem with the flow valve was.” Shuri says.

 

“It worked!” Cap repeats with greater enthusiasm.  “Where am I?” He looks around with sudden concern, as if his surroundings have only just occurred to him.

 

“The lab?” Peter offers.

 

“Do you want to sit down?” Shuri asks, side-eying Peter.  Yes, Peter considers, this behavior may warrant some mild concern.

 

“Is this Wakanda?  Why are _you_ in Wakanda?” Cap asks Peter.

 

“I was invited!” Peter reminds him.  He knows Cap has a lot on his plate right now, but _man_ , Peter is almost a little insulted that Cap doesn’t remember-

 

“ _Where’s the infinity gauntlet?_ ” Cap suddenly asks, looking down at his hand with abject horror.

 

Peter and Shuri could just answer the question, but that wouldn’t really address the underlying confusion that seems to be permeating this conversation.  Actually, looking a little closer, Cap seems a little bedraggled. Bedraggled being, in this case, a lighter way of saying _completely thrashed_.  Poor guy has a big gash across his perfect bicep.  Completely covered in mud and, hmm, hopefully that’s not blood.

 

“Well-” he begins to say as Shuri starts in with a “What-” at which point they’re both introduced to a million more questions when a second Captain America enters the lab.

 

* * *

 

“So this is some time-stone fuckery?” Mr.Stark asks.

 

There’s a hastily-assembled half-team of avengers gathered in T’Challa’s conference room.  Convenient that this happened when most of them were in the same place at the same time.

 

“I remember this happening.” One of the Captain Americas says.  “I put on the gauntlet to undo the snap, and then I was suddenly in a completely different time and place.”  The two are sitting next to each other at the end of the table. There’s no doubt they’re both Steve Rogers. One seems significantly more relaxed than the other.  The relaxation probably comes from the fact that one of them _hasn’t_ just been suddenly displaced through time and space, while the other...apparently has.

 

Black Widow is leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed.  “Yeah, I remember yelling at you not to put on the gauntlet, then you did it anyways and vanished into thin air.”

 

Falcon and the Winter Soldier (er, White Wolf?  Bucky? Peter isn’t sure what the official title is these days) are both sitting across the table from the two Caps.  They nod knowingly, _yes, that sounds like something he’d do_.

 

“Sure, how could we forget everyone thinking Cap was dead for a hot second?” Mr.Stark says. “So you’re from, what, 2018?”

 

Battle-worn and delirious Cap from the past doesn’t answer.  He’s just looking around the room with tears in his eyes. Happy tears, Peter thinks?  The guy must be happy to see everyone alive again. And he probably thought he was sacrificing himself when he put on the gauntlet, so he’s probably happy to be alive, too.  Yeah, happy tears for sure. When past-Cap had entered the room to find Falcon and White Wolf playing poker at the conference table, he’d crushed them both with a hug so intense some of the stitches on his combat suit actually popped.

 

“He’s from 2018.” Modern-day Cap confirms.  Five years ago.

 

“So, how’d you get back last time?” Mr.Stark asks, tapping a pen against the table.

 

“Well, I don’t remember being in Wakanda.  I remember showing up in New York somewhere, and Dr.Strange sent me back.” Modern-Cap says.

 

Everyone looks around the room.  Dr.Strange is noticeably absent. He probably isn’t flying in until later this week.  If he was even invited. Would he be invited? Peter doesn’t want to ask and make it weird.  But a few other people look like they’re wondering the same thing.

 

“He used the time stone.  Said it was 2020.” Modern-Cap says.

 

“Every iteration of you probably goes to a slightly different time and place after putting on the gauntlet.” Vision offers.

 

“I hate this multiverse alternate-timelines shit.  Did it not occur to you to tell anyone when you first got back from launching yourself into the future?” Mr.Stark asks.

 

“I’m pretty sure I told Fury.” Modern-Cap says.

 

Mr.Stark rolls his eyes.  “Oh, you’re _pretty sure_?  Fury’s flight doesn’t get here until Wednesday but you better believe I’m gonna fact check that.  The implications of this are mind-boggling and you just forgot-”

 

Cap from the past interrupts him, finally speaking up. “Where’s the time stone in this timeline?”

 

Peter can answer that! “Thor has it.”

 

“The gauntlet was pretty trashed,” Mr.Stark says.  “Thor’s off getting it remodeled on some moon somewhere.  Said he was gonna put all the stones into a new hammer. That might’ve been a joke.  Hard to tell with him sometimes.”

 

Modern-Cap nods.  “Alright. So we’ll get Thor to bring the time stone, and we can send...the version of me from the past… back to the past.  In the meantime, nobody tell him...me... anything about the future. We don’t want to accidentally do anything that might change it.”

 

“Cool.  I’ll get Thor on the line now.” Mr.Stark says.  “Can I tell time-traveling Cap that we finally get Thor to carry around a cell phone?”

 

Modern-Cap gives him an unimpressed look, but then Thor answers the phone.  The situation is explained.

 

“Can you bring the time stone back to Earth so we can fix this?” Black Widow eventually concludes, capping off the group’s piece-meal description of time travel and alternate universes.

 

Thor laughs on speakerphone.  “Yes. We’ll bring the revitalized gauntlet when we arrive back on Earth this weekend.  I look forward to seeing you all at the wedding!”

 

Thor might say something else after that, but they’ll never know for sure, because Cap’s heightened reflexes allow him to immediately slam the end call button with unmatchable speed.

 

“Wedding?  Who’s getting married?” Past-Cap asks.

 

“We can’t tell you bec-”

 

“Me.” Mr.Stark says, loudly enough to drown out a few people hedging about timeline variability.  “Knowing that won’t spoil anything for him. He knows Pepper and I are getting married. We’ve had to postpone a few years, what with the whole cleanup effort and all.  But now I’m finally getting married. Next week.”

 

Everyone nods in unison.

 

“Oh, congratulations.” Past-Cap says.

 

Mr.Stark drops the pen he’s been fiddling with and folds his hands in his lap.  When he stands up from the table a minute later, Peter can see that he’s removed his wedding ring.  Good call, Peter thinks. A true master of subterfuge in action.

 

* * *

 

There’s still almost a week until Thor arrives back on Earth with the time stone, so Cap from the past has to stick around until then.  He’s adjusted admirably to his new surroundings. Then, Cap is probably uniquely prepared to adjust to suddenly waking up in the future.

 

Past-Cap is under careful instruction not to leave the palace until then.  Modern-Cap emphasizes about a million times that the future is really, really good, and he doesn’t want to change a single thing about it.  Still, even Peter can tell that Past-Cap is chafing to see what’s so great about the future.

 

Peter is currently on guard duty, making sure Past-Cap doesn’t make a run for the doors when no one is looking.  He’s not sure what he’d actually be able to do to stop the guy, but luckily the matter hasn’t been pressed. Cap’s been sitting on the couch watching some Wakandan movie for the better part of the afternoon.  There are English subtitles. The plot is still kinda hard to follow. Peter had tried to show him some reruns of The Office. The relatable humor was, in retrospect, a little less relatable for someone from the 40’s.   _Can’t I just do a crossword puzzle?_ Cap had eventually asked.  No, no he could not, because sometimes crossword puzzles reference current events.

 

This is totally the wrong job for Peter.  Peter can’t keep a secret. He knows it, everyone else knows it.  Cap probably knows it. Peter’s poker face is virtually nonexistent.  Heck, the only reason spider-man is even still a ‘secret’ identity is because New York is willing to collectively ignore his continual identity-revealing slips.

 

“Are things okay with me and Bucky, in the future?” Past-Cap asks.  There it is. That’s a perfectly innocuous-sounding question that’s definitely gonna lead to Peter slipping up about something major.

 

Peter gives him a deer-in-the-headlights look.  Cap’s gotta know he can’t answer that.

 

“I know, I know, I just...I haven’t seen him at all these last few days.”  He looks so downtrodden. Peter can’t help himself.

 

“You two are doing really well.  So well. He’s just...busy, a lot.” Peter says.  True. Good answer, Peter has to commend himself.  Appropriately vague.

 

“He’s still raising those goats?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Back in 2018, I just met the goats a week ago.  Weird little animals. I don’t think they like me.”

 

“Hm.” Peter says noncommittally.  He received a Christmas card last winter featuring a smiling Steve Rogers surrounded by goats.  The goats apparently warm up to him. Unsure if that would constitute a major future-spoiler, Peter doesn’t elaborate.

 

“You know...I know the wedding next week isn’t Tony’s.” Cap says.

 

Alarm bells in Peter’s head.  “How?”

 

“Why would Tony be getting married in Wakanda?  That wouldn’t make any sense.”

 

“It’s...really nice in Wakanda?  Beautiful scenery.” Peter offers.  But it’s a weak excuse.

 

“Clearly, someone who actually lives in Wakanda is getting married.  But who lives in Wakanda and knows all the Avengers?”

 

Peter feels sweaty.  He should never have been given this assignment.

 

Cap thinks for a second, then speaks again.  “Oh. Obviously, T’Challa. T’Challa and Nakia are getting married.  That’s excellent.”

 

Peter tries not to make his relieved sigh too obvious.  “Yes. T’Challa and Nakia are definitely the two people getting married next week.”

 

* * *

 

The rest of the week passes fairly uneventfully.  Cap accidentally finds out about the ending to the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and the publication date for _The Winds of Winter_.  Anything more exciting is successfully kept hidden.  As far as Cap knows, T’Challa and Nakia are getting married next week.  T’Challa already likes to mention Nakia about twice per conversation, so it’s a great cover story.

 

Thor arrives later this afternoon, so as long as nothing happens in the, say, three hours until then, everything is perfect.

 

Peter, finds Cap, glazed look in his eyes, eating a bowl of dry cereal on the floor.  Once again, Peter has been too optimistic too soon.

 

“You okay?” Peter asks.

 

“Yeah.” Says Cap, from his spot on the floor.  Clearly not okay.  He eats another spoonful of cereal. Looks like some sort of corn flakes.  Not even particularly good cereal. The situation must be particularly dire.

 

“You...excited to go back to your time?  Snap undone, everyone back… that’ll be good.” Peter says.

 

“Sam told me.” Cap says.  “About the wedding.”

 

“Oh.” Peter says.  This is, he’s gotta say, _not_ how he thought Cap would take the news.  “You’re not...you’re not happy?”

 

“I should be.  God, I’m the worst friend.  I should be so happy for Bucky.” Cap laughs humorlessly.

 

Peter pauses.  Considers what he’s just heard.  Mulls it over. Tries to think before he speaks, for once.

 

“What, exactly, did Sam tell you?” Peter asks.

 

“He got a phone call, answered it, and talked about how great the bachelor party is going to be.” Cap says.

 

“So… he didn’t tell you anything?”

 

“His ringtone was the high-pitched beeping one.  That’s his ringtone for Bucky.”

 

“Okay.” That’s some highly specific knowledge of ringtones and Peter really cannot argue with it.

 

“Bucky lives in Wakanda.  He’s gotta be the one getting married next week.  That’s why I wouldn’t have wanted myself to know. Spare myself the pain.  Do I know his fiancé?”

 

“Uh” Peter says.

 

“Actually, don’t tell me.” Cap says. “Did I ever tell Bucky how I felt?”

 

“I don’t know.” Peter says.  That’s the honest truth. He has genuinely no idea what conversations Cap and White Wolf had or did not have about Cap’s feelings.  This is the only conversation about Captain America’s feelings that he has ever been even remotely involved in, and frankly, he is terrified.

 

Cap looks up suddenly, with new resolve.  “I have to imagine I didn’t. I have to tell him, and if that changes the future, so be it.”

 

“Uh.” Peter reiterates.

 

“If I still have to see him marry someone else, so be it.  But I have to at least tell him how I feel first.” Cap says.  He puts down his bowl of cereal and wipes his eyes.

 

* * *

 

Everyone can relax and enjoy the reception.  Past-Cap has been successfully returned to 2018, so now there’s only one Steve Rogers in the current timeline.

 

Actually, there are _no_ Steve Rogers in the current timeline, because now that the wedding ceremony is done, the official name is Steve Rogers-Barnes.

 

“Should I have told him?” Peter asks Shuri.

 

Shuri makes a noncommittal noise.  “Eh. Worst case scenario, they get together sooner instead of just being awkward until 2020.”

 

Shuri doesn’t seem highly concerned.  She’s trying to get a goat to stay still long enough for her to take a picture of it.  Someone got all the goats little bowties for the wedding.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always appreciated :) thanks for reading!


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